


Ice in the Summer Heat

by summertimesoldier



Series: The Stars Ain't Crossed 'Verse [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:08:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28305825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summertimesoldier/pseuds/summertimesoldier
Summary: “Mission report.”He doesn’t remember the mission. He only remembers the man.A telling of Bucky’s story during CA:WS. Can be read as a standalone, or as a companion fic toThe Stars Ain’t Crossed (Why Align Them).
Series: The Stars Ain't Crossed 'Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073192
Kudos: 8





	Ice in the Summer Heat

**Author's Note:**

> Starts during Chapter 31 and ends just before Chapter 34 of [The Stars Ain’t Crossed (Why Align Them)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679876).  
> If reading this fic as a standalone, it may be relevant to know that Steve is trans, and his physique was not changed dramatically by the serum (though he does have super-strength & etc.)
> 
> Title from "I Lost a Friend" by FINNEAS

The Asset returned to his body slowly. For the first several hours, he couldn’t move. He knew this was because he was still coming out of the induced sleep, but that didn’t stop him panicking for the first 15 minutes or so. And then he came back to himself, strapped down, immobile no matter how much he struggled. That’s how it went. 

As he regained feeling in his extremities, doctors came into his field of vision. They began running the usual tests, making sure everything was working. That took another few hours. The Asset let the rhythm wash over him. He sank into the depths of his body as they tinkered above him. One of the technicians opened a panel on his arm. It was severely damaged, the metal blackened and twisted. He didn’t remember doing that. 

He closed his eyes, unable to look away as the technician poked inside, switching out the parts that had been broken. There’s a steady stream of conversation over him. Sometimes they’re talking about him, what they need to fix on the body, but it’s mostly mundane things. Someone’s getting married. Someone else is getting divorced. He lets himself float. 

The hours pass. 

He knows this is how it always goes. He tries to remember the last time this happened, how he damaged the body, anything. It gives him a headache, a stabbing pain, so he stops trying. He remembers a face. A man, with blue eyes and blonde hair. The man is saying something to him.

He doesn’t notice the technicians file out. In their place are his current handlers. The lead handler seems a few years older than when the Asset had last seen him. There are few new faces beside him, but the Asset knows that he’ll be told who they are when he needs to. 

“Mission report.”

He knows what he’s supposed to do. The words are on the tip of his tongue. But he just sees the man. He had been fighting him on a bridge. They’re in a metropolitan area. United States. Maybe the northeast. 

The man is strong. Much stronger than his small frame would indicate. Of all things, he fights with a shield. The Asset knows this is not a good weapon. Both too big and too small, it creates vulnerabilities and can easily be taken. When the Asset used it, it was familiar. The man looked shocked the Asset had used it at all. The Asset remembers fighting the man. The man had knocked the Asset’s mask off. His handlers wouldn’t like that. The man had seen his face. He remembers seeing recognition in the man's eyes. Something that hadn’t been there until he saw the Asset’s face. 

His handler is talking to him again. He pulls himself back into his body. 

“Mission report.”

He doesn’t remember the mission. He only remembers the man. 

“The man. On the bridge. Who was he?”

“You met him earlier this week on another assignment.”

That didn’t answer the question. This wasn’t just someone who had fought him before. When the man saw the Asset’s face, something had changed. The Asset’s face meant something to the man. 

And the man’s face had meant something to the Asset. He feels his lips move before he realizes he’s speaking. 

“I knew him.”

“Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time.”

The handler keeps on talking. The Asset lets it wash over him. He knew the man. Why did he say that? It couldn’t be true. To know him, the Asset would have to be a person. To be more than a tool with a mission. A weapon to be pointed at the enemy. 

“But I knew him.”

He doesn’t realize he spoke aloud until he feels the sharp sting of a slap across his face. They keep on talking around him, arguing. He opens his mouth for the rubber guard when it’s in front of his face. He bites down and then there’s nothing but pain. 

The Asset wakes. He is given a mission. He is told this is the most important mission he will ever complete. He doesn’t know why they say this. The Asset will complete the mission.

He completes the mission. It’s straightforward. Ensure the helicarriers are able to launch and target the enemy. He grounds the jets, taking them down in balls of fire, pilots and all. The fewer players, the better. He takes the final jet himself, landing on the helicarrier. 

The other man on the helicarrier is dressed ridiculously. The suit cannot seem to decide whether to be practical or decorative. It completely lacks armour, but seems to have a place to attach the shield he seems intent on using instead of a practical weapon. 

The shield seems to tickle something in the back of his mind. Perhaps he was briefed about this weapon on a previous mission. When he takes it from the man and uses it against him, the weight seems familiar in his hand. 

The slight frame of the man seems incongruous with the force behind his blows. Perhaps he is another Asset, enhanced, but controlled by the enemy. 

The man seems shocked when the Asset shoots him, but he doesn’t seem to be slowed. They fight, topping down the levels of the helicarrier. The Asset knows he just needs to keep the man busy, needs to kill time until the enemy can be targeted and neutralized. But he has never fought someone like this. Not only is strength enhanced, but his fighting is unusual. He seems to have learned the principles of fighting on the street, but fights with the precision of years of formal training. 

The man manages to make it back to the upper level. The Asset shoots him again, and the man collapses. With a shot like that to the stomach, he should be incapacitated. The Asset can do nothing but watch as the man pulls himself up again. The man slots the chip into the mainframe. 

There are a few moments of quiet, and then the helicarrier is exploding and the Asset knows he has failed. The helicarrier is shaking from impacts from every direction. The Asset tries to go to the man, finish at least part of the mission. But as he does, a structural support falls on him, pinning him to the ground. He sees the man above him, knows he can escape. The Asset tries in vain to lift the beam, but cannot get purchase. 

This will be the Asset’s final mission. He is going to die.

No sooner had he come to that conclusion when he saw the man back with him. This is not the right strategy. The man should be escaping, not trying to finish the job. The Asset will die when the helicarrier falls out of the air.

But it seems the man isn’t there to finish the job. Instead he lifts the bean pinning the Asset down, confirming he must be enhanced. 

The Asset gets to his feet. He’ll kill the man. He can complete this part of his mission, at least.

“You know me,” the man says. He seems intent on talking to the Asset. He’d done it before they started fighting. It was poor strategy. 

“No, I don’t.”

The Asset attacks the man again, but this time the man doesn’t fight back. 

“Bucky, you've known me your whole life.”

The Asset continues to attack. 

“Your name is James Buchanan Barnes.”

“Shut up!”

What is this man trying to do? The Asset doesn’t have a name. The strategy is confusing. The man will die. Either the Asset will kill him or he will die in the fall.

The man takes off his mask and drops his shield through a hole in the floor of the helicarrier. 

“I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend.”

The Asset takes advantage of the vulnerabilities and pins the man to the ground. He hits the man repeatedly in the face. He doesn’t realize he’s speaking aloud until he hears his own voice.

“You’re my mission! You’re my,” the Asset punches the man again, “mission!”

“Then finish it.”

This doesn’t make sense. The Asset stops, fist still drawn back, ready for a punch that will never land. 

“Cause I’m with you to the end of the line.”

Those words mean something to the Asset. But before he can do anything about it, the man is falling out of the helicarrier. He only hesitates for a moment before he jumps after the man, splashing into the water.

The water is cold and bracing. He doesn’t seem to be controlling his limbs as he swims to find the man, unconscious, sinking into the murky water. He grabs the man’s arm and pulls, dragging him toward the surface. His bulky armor makes it hard to move in the water. He kicks his booted feet, moving towards the surface. 

When they reach the surface, he gets the man’s head above water, but he doesn’t seem to be breathing. They’re not far from the shore, so he pulls him there, the man’s prone body floating behind him as he swims. 

He drags the body to the shore. He puts his lips to the other man’s, breathing into his mouth and begins chest compressions. After only a few pushes, the man sputters and spits up water. His eyes flutter open for a moment and close again. 

Even though he was only in the water for a few minutes, the man’s lips are purpling, blue from the cold. He takes the man in his arms again, trying to get warmth past the gaudy costume soaked from the river.

He knows if he leaves the man’s body here someone will find him. They’ll take him to a hospital. That seems wrong. He looks at the man’s face again. The man said he knew him. Why does he know that the man cannot go to the hospital? Maybe the man is right. Maybe the man does know him. 

He resettles the man in his arms and begins to walk. They seem to be in a park. He lets his feet guide him through the paths until they reach the streets. He navigates to a disused safe house. Regardless of the status of HYDRA, this one should be safe for at least a day or so. 

He places the man on the floor and begins stripping the wet clothes off of him. He stops himself at the man's underwear, leaving him in his boxers and undershirt. He stitches the man up, ignoring the fact that his wounds are already healing, far faster than anyone’s should. Well, anyone’s other than his. 

He digs through the box labeled “Men’s clothes” in the closet. Everything seems too large for the slight frame before him, but he makes do. He works the man into an oversized button down shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He rolls the legs up to expose the man’s feet, and slips a fresh pair of socks on them. 

The man looks vulnerable, soft, so unlike the man he had been fighting earlier. 

He feels something warm swell in his chest as he looks at the man in front of him. He reaches out to brush his hair off of his forehead. It feels familiar, like he’s done it before. 

He thinks back to his briefing. His handlers hadn’t told him about the man, but they must have known he would be there. Who was he? Why did he feel something for him? How could he feel anything at all? He wasn’t supposed to feel. He was supposed to do. He was supposed to complete his mission. Not only had he failed, but he’d saved this man, saved the enemy. He didn’t want to think about the torture his handlers would inevitably inflict on him when they found him. Thankfully the city was still in enough chaos that he was low on the priority list. They’d assume he died on the helicarrier, like he was supposed to. It wouldn’t be until a day or two that they’d realize he was gone and by then he and Steve would be long gone. 

Steve? He called the man Steve. Why did he do that? How would he know that? He’d never been briefed on him. Before he can think about it too much, the man’s eyes flutter open. 

“Bucky?”


End file.
